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Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) – Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg, President of the SACBC (Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference) made a powerful appeal calling for the Eucharist to be placed at the center of faith life, in his homily on Holy Thursday. A copy of the homily was sent to Agenzia Fides.
“Pope John Paul declared the year 2005, the Year of the Eucharist,” Archbishop Tlhagale mentioned. “At the conclusion of that year, he canonized five saints distinguished for their Eucharistic piety. He also issued the Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum Domine and an Encyclical on The Mystery and Worship of The Holy Eucharist (2005). Pope Benedict continued on the same theme with his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, The Sacrament of Charity (Sacramentum Caritatis). The Congregation of Divine Worship issued an Instruction on The Sacrament of Redemption (2004).”
“The Year of the Eucharist has come and gone, and yet (as a diocese) we can hardly boast of a good grasp of these documents and the teaching they contain,” the Archbishop of Johannesburg affirmed, asking that priests place these documents within the reach of their parishioners and that they help translate them into vernacular languages where necessary. “This is one way of reawakening and increasing Eucharistic faith. This is the supreme treasure of the Catholic Church,” Archbishop Tlhagale recalled, because “the Eucharist gives Catholics their unique identity. The non-celebration of the Eucharist because of the shortage of priests weakens this Catholic identity.”
“The priest and the deacon have a close relationship with the Eucharist. The Eucharist, says John Paul, ‘is the principal and central raison d’etre of the Sacrament of the Priesthood.’ The people of God expect from priests a particular veneration and Eucharistic piety.”
In addition to the importance of receiving the Eucharist, the Archbishop of Johannesburg reaffirmed the need for Eucharistic Adoration, as it is “an act of witnessing when one sees many gathered in silence before the Lord. Eucharistic Adoration should become part and parcel of our way of being Church. Many have said that Eucharistic Adoration promotes vocations to the priesthood and to religious life. Children, youth and adults should be taught and encouraged to appreciate the beauty of silence in the presence of Jesus Christ.”
Archbishop Tlhagale also observed that “our attitude, external behaviour, our gestures, our bodily movements reveal our faith, or, our lack of faith in the invisible presence of God, in the ‘real presence’ of Christ in the Eucharist, in the Consecrated Hosts in the tabernacle.”
The Archbishop of Johannesburg then listed several observations that show a lack of faith in the Eucharist: “Many enter the church and do not make the sign of the cross with holy water. Many no longer genuflect, not even a bow that acknowledges the presence of Christ in the tabernacle. Altar rails that have been dismantled, thus we no longer kneel when receiving the ‘Body of Christ’. Our churches are like a market place before and after Mass partly because we have moved the tabernacle to a separate room, or simply because we have lost the sense of the presence of the Holy. We have abandoned silence and a prayerful atmosphere in the church. Where possible, we need to restore the centrality of the tabernacle. We need to recover the culture and practice of genuflecting and of silence. Church law requires us to fast for an hour before the Eucharist. The chewing of gum during Mass is simply distasteful.”
In order to remedy the situation, the Archbishop of Johannesburg invites each and every parish to begin Eucharistic Adoration, that it be the theme of the Archdiocese for the next three years in order for a Eucharistic movement to emerge, and a return to the processions of Corpus Christi, “in order to give public witness to our faith.” (LM) (Agenzia Fides 16/4/2009)
